


Echo of The Rising Tide

by yersifanel



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV), How to Get Away with Murder, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Crossover, Hackers, M/M, Spies & Secret Agents
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-05-19
Updated: 2015-05-19
Packaged: 2018-03-31 08:13:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,635
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3970549
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/yersifanel/pseuds/yersifanel
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Oliver made a decision that day, one he was not sure if he was to regret later, but for the time being be became part of the anonymous network of hacktivists know as The Rising Tide... Then The Battle of New York happened and nothing was the same again.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Echo of The Rising Tide

**Author's Note:**

> I blame Jack Falahee’s tweet about the cast of HTGAWM being assemble in New York Avengers style. This bunny came jumping around because of it and now it’s here. 
> 
> Enjoy!
> 
> PD: Not beta-ed, sorry!

When Oliver was in high school, begin tech-savvy was one of the most interesting aspects other people saw on him. After all, not many people were interested in computer beyond being able to use the internet to get porn. He wasn't exactly popular, but he was considered very smart and rightfully so. When he was in College, while people already knew how to use a computer, he was making configurations for servers as a part time job in the College's IT Department... and maybe he used part of that enormous storage space to setup a Diablo II server for him and his friends in the afternoon shift.

Hey, those disk arrays where painfully empty; a LAN server wouldn't hurt them. 

After his classes grew less frequent as he finish semester after semester, he got knowledge transfer from other sources. He got aboard whit all kind of technological knowledge he could get, few topics where fairly legal... other not so much. The knowledge was infinite and Oliver couldn't get enough of it.

When he was about to finish college, he got a new job as a IT Junior IT Specialist in a Data Management Company. He got the night shift and his job has pretty simple: make sure no server blow up and if it did, fix it ASAP.

Working with Disk Arrays was... kind of boring. The room was always cold because the disks couldn't get hot at all, and outside the disks rooms the hallways were always empty because he had the night shift. Offices tend to be creepy at night, his was no exception.

Still, he used the dummy server to practice coding and got better at his non-legal activities.

It was during one of his lonely night shifts when he got an invitation for a hacker space. Information, technology and resources, it was a great opportunity to learn new ways to develop applications and codifications, the only thing this particular hacker space requested in return was help to spread the information they found, after all the hacker space belong to a group of Activist whose purpose was to make information transparent and free for all. 

"You got to be kidding me," he whispered when he read what was being asked of him, because there was no way the man in the video was creating flames out of nowhere or that the woman in the pictures could stop a train with her bare hands.

"The world has to know the truth," the other hacker told Oliver, "There are agencies hiding this from us, the government doesn’t want us to know the fact that there are people out there that are more than humans."

Needless to say, Oliver was pretty conflicted about this information. Part of him wanted to deny everything and forget about the activist group and their hacker space, another part of him wanted to know more and spread the message, because it was incredibly and he shared the main initiative of this group: the idealism that information should be free and for everyone.

Oliver made a decision that day, one he was not sure if he was to regret later, but for the time being be became part of the anonymous network of hacktivists know as The Rising Tide under the alias "Echo".

Time went by and Oliver did his part, he grew to like the rising Tide and their activities, until a bad plan ended up with a few of them in jail. Oliver was barely able to escape without a trace, technological or otherwise, but the scare was going to haunt him for a while.

He went under the radar after that and the other hackers understood why, it was somehow a protocol to disappear for a while after a near catch after all.

Life was fairly normal after that. He moved to Philadelphia and got a job in IT Department of an Advertising Agency and while he still got updates from a few of this contacts in the Rising Tide, he wasn't directly involved in their activities anymore.

Slowly but surely, Oliver left Echo behind and settle into a simply life; work, friends, a few relationships… rinse and repeat. 

The Rising Tide kept quiet and Oliver settle into his day to day life he even met a Connor Walsh, a law student that turned Oliver's word upside down, and his life got a little more interesting with him in it.

Things were fine... but The Battle of New York happened, the world saw an invasion and the Avengers assembled to defend a world that was blissfully unaware of the threats against it. 

So... New York happened, people die, some went missing and nothing was the same again.

\----------

Connor was busy taking Oliver's breathe away from him with demanding kisses and enthusiastic hands when Oliver's cell phone went off, loudly, several times. The look his kind-of-boyfriend game him was a mixture between a pout and a glare.

"Sorry," Oliver mumble, trying to not laugh, but his humor died when he saw the encrypted message in display, a fellow Rising Tide hacker was asking for his help.

"I got three texts from Michaela half an hour ago and I ignored them, you can ignore whatever is calling you, I'm pretty sure they are not as obnoxious as Michaela anyway," 

"Hmmm..." Connor licked his lips, moving closely to Oliver on the couch, only for Oliver to place a hand directly over his face and keep him at bay while he stood up and quickly walked to his room to retrieve his computer, leaving a stunned Connor behind, 

"Rude, Oliver, rude..."

Connor got up after that, following Oliver to his room, where the older man had taken out two laptops and other pieces of technology that Connor was not entirely familiar with and was furiously typing while he glared at the laptops' screens as if the objects have personally offended him.

"Busy," was all he said when Connor sat beside him, eying his work.

"Ollie..."

"Sorry Con, kind of busy... emergency favor for a friend," the fact that Oliver was letting Connor even see what he was doing was a token of how much he trusted him. That and the fact Oliver belived Connor understood or cared to understand what Oliver was doing.

The younger man had a frown on his face and looked from the screens to Oliver several times before placing a hand over Oliver's to stop him from typing.

"Oliver?"

"Connor please, I need to finish this--" there was a sound and the screen displayed a green code, quickly followed by a counter, a couple of clicks there and some typing later, Oliver finished, "Finally..."

He grinned, feeling happy with his work and turned to quickly kiss Connor before closing his laptops and putting everything away.

Connor blinked a couple of times, unsure of what to say. Oliver would be proud of leaving Connor stunned into silence if he wasn’t so paranoid about it, "What?"

"Did... did you just hack into Stark Industries to get footage of a Norse god fighting a green beast? Or getting tossed around by after mentioned beast, whatever..."

"Of course not," Oliver assured him, "I hacked into it months ago, right now I just pulled a copy of the footage from my private server to get it into the net, because the files were wiped, again, it annoys me that they are trying to hide things like this."

Connor tilted his head to a side, "They?"

"It's complicated," Connor bit his lower lip, nodding, "I don't question your motives when you ask me to hack into old rich ladies' computers, you cannot criticize me."

"I’m not doing it!" he defended, "I was just trying to understand what interrupted our making out session, because it wasn't nice and I didn't like it."

Connor pouted and Oliver resisted the urge to call him adorable. Instead he took Connor's hand and walked him back to the living room with a grin that promised resume what they were doing before his hacker friend "Skye" requested the footage.

It was so easy to forget about the word when Connor was with him, he felt safe and free and brushing aside his worries and paranoia came so effortless it was almost uncanny.

\----------

Connor was curled up besides Oliver, his head cushioned in the older man's leg while watching the movie with sleepy eyes. Oliver ran his hand over Connor's hair, making the younger man smile as he leaned into the touch.

"We should go to bed" Oliver told him, lowering the TV's volume.

"I wanna know how it ends," Connor moved a little but made no effort to get up.

"You are not even paying attention to the movie," he pointed out and Connor turned over to look at him in the eye, grinning. "Silly."

Connor was about the say something when someone knocked at the door several times, urgently and loudly.

Startled, Oliver got up and opened it, standing face to face with a woman dressed in black.

"I need your help," what the first thing she said but when Connor came into view, she pulled out a mobile phone showing a logo of an eagle, "Agent May from S.H.I.E.L.D."

Connor was taken aback, looking at the woman oddly, but Oliver knew better, the woman at the door was not a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent but a fellow hacker, Skye.

"OK?" Oliver said uncertainly and she entered, closing the door behind her and handing him a computer, then moved to face Connor.

"I have been sent to retrieve some information Mr. Hampton can provide, please wait here," she urged Oliver to the kitchen and Connor was about to follow when Oliver turned around, smiling at him.

"It's ok Connor, it won't take long," he said, "Please?"

Connor nodded, staying in the living room while Connor and "Agent May" talked about accessing crooked accounts in the Caymans and vital information "Agent May" required.

"But I cannot bypass the security," she said in a lower voice, "This cyber nanny is blocking all my access, that's why I need your help."

She had a bracelet around her wrist and she looked flustered, Connor narrowed his eyes, getting to his bag to retrieve a few things, he was taking out his phone when "Agent May" took it from him.

"I'm sorry!" she said before throwing a punch that Connor dodged out of instinct, moving faster than usual and quickly getting Skye into a hold to prevent her from hitting him, "Wha—?"

"What are you doing?" Oliver yelled from the kitchen, "Stop, just stop!"

"She started!" 

"Oliver, please!" the woman begged, "I just want to save my boss!"

She hit Connor over the face, managing to get off his grasp and quickly moving to where Oliver was, but Connor was on his feet in a moment and was about to tackle her when Oliver stood between them.

"I said STOP!"

both of them did so, glaring at one another before looking at Oliver, 

"She's an impostor," Connor said, "I don’t know who you are trying to fool, but you are no S.H.I.E.L.D. agent."

"Whatever," she said, "Echo knows me."

"Echo?" Connor stared at Oliver, who shrugged.

"I was in high school, I was not going to user "Oliver" as my hacker name," he stood between him, murmuring to Connor to calm down before facing the other hacker, "Skye... this is Connor. Connor this is Sky, one of my friends."

"Pleasure," she hissed, "Echo, I really need your help, if I get near any device it blocks and my boss is in danger, I need to know where they took him!"

She looked desperate and Connor took a step back, looking at her with distrust written all over his face when they walked back to the kitchen, where Oliver set to work while Connor sat beside him and Skye sat at the opposite side, glaring at each other.

Oliver got the information and Skye looked so proud she was almost shinning as she called her team to let me know.

"I knew where they took Coulson," she quickly said, "But I'm too far away from there... Hello?" She looked over her phone, only to find the S.H.I.E.L.D. logo blocking it, "No, no, no, no!"

Oliver looked lost while Connor was eying Skye with a deep frown upping his face, "Give me the phone."

"What?"

"Your phone," he repeated, "Give it to me," 

Reluctantly, she hand it over to Connor, how looked at Oliver with a smile before pressing the phone to his ear and speaking in a clear voice.

"Shooting Star, active."

The phone's screen turned black and when back to normal after a moment, Connor motioned for Skye to not use the hand where the bracelet before handing it back to her.

"That should do it."

"What did you do?" asked both Skye and Oliver, but Connor's attention was just on the man he had fallen in love with.

"I raised a red flag," he said and turned to Skye, "My boss is going to kill me so I hope yours gets saved and has level enough to get my ass out of confinement."

\----------

A quinjet landed in the rooftop of Oliver's building, piloting it was the real Agent May and the rest of Skye’s team. Oliver was trying to get an explanation out of Connor when Agent May silence them both, he took a look at Skye, then Oliver and finally to Connor.

"A Hacker from the Rising Tide, really?" she said to Connor, who looked mildly embarrassed.

"He didn't do anything wrong!" Skye defended Oliver, "He's retired, and he was just helping me this time."

May looked at Skye, unimpressed, "I wasn't going to arrest him," she explained, "But Agent Walsh here should know better."

"I'm not active," Connor said, "You know that."

"Well, now you have to explain Keating why did you blow your cover."

"To save your boss, apparently," Connor countered, "Let me know how that works out."

"Hmm..." May nodded and then they were gone while Connor observed the jet leaving with Oliver behind him, looking at him as he didn't know him.

"Connor?"

"A Hacker from The Rising Tide and an Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. met in a bar, neither knew who the other was," he said before looking at him, "Now we know."

Realization dawn upon Oliver while Connor shifted from one foot to another, pulling his sleeves over his hands as Oliver came closer.

"You know I love you, right?" Oliver said softly, pulling at Connor's shirt to take his hand, "I do."

"You are the best thing that has happened to me, Oliver," he murmured, "I love you."

"What is going to happen now?"

Connor laced his fingers with Oliver's and gently tugged him to get back into the building, "Annalise is going to lecture me to no end about protocols and covers, Frank is going to be a hell to train with for a while and Bonnie will just stare coldly while giving me tons of paperwork... the others... Michaela is going to give me the evil eye forever... probably yell too, ehm... I don't know if Wes will mind and Laurel probably will be happy to have an excuse to be active again, Asher is going to gloat about his spy and cover skills to no end and Rebecca is going to murder me, probably."

It took Oliver a second to catch up. 

"What, all of you are with S.H.I.E.L.D.?"

Realizing he just blow his entire teams’ cover, Connor rolled his eyes. 

Being a spy was easier when he wasn't in love with a nerdy hacker.


End file.
